Moorland fire heroes get a big thank you

A big “thank you” party for emergency workers and volunteers who fought the Winter Hill fires in July attracted around 2,000 people.

And organisers say the event, in the Rivington Terraced Gardens at the weekend, went so well it could be repeated in the future.

Casper Mason on stage at the Big Thank You event

“We are really pleased with how well it went and we have been asked if we would be prepared to do it again,” said Liam Roche, from the restoration team Groundwork, the group behind the party. “But if we did then next time we would probably give ourselves more than four weeks to organise it.”

Around 600 of the partygoers were staff and families of from the emergency services. Liam added: “We got quite a lot of thank-yous for organising it. Some were quite emotional that we’d gone to the effort.”

The event is expected to have raised more than £10,000 to be split between seven charities.